How does one reconcile childhood happiness with adult maturity?

Kiss You

CREEPY. CANDID. LOOKS LIKE IT WANTS TO KISS YOU.

OH YEAH. LEMME GET SOME OF THAT. 

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
-Thomas Edison

Lights!

LOVE MANUAL FOCUS.

Stubborn Love

"The opposite of love is indifference" 

A Symbol

People are always skeptical about piercing their ears, especially in the cartilage. In my opinion, getting my cartilage pierced was the best $12 I have ever spent. 
My family is extremely conservative in the sense that it is obsessed with image and purity. I decided to pierce my ears in the summer after my sophomore year mostly because I felt that I needed to detach myself from my overprotective parents. Initially, I obediently asked my mother if I could pierce my cartilage. The answer was as I expected: no. My mother actually reacted quite dramatically and lectured me on my lack of religious traditionalism. Of course, a week later, in an act of insubordination, I decided that I should ignore my mother's dissent and pierce them anyways. Of course, it was something so simple to be labelled as an "act of rebellion" - however, I saw it differently. I truly detested my parents at the time and this will always be a reminder of my individuality in junior year.
Most people argue that piercing one's ears resembles conceit and self obsession. I find this to be true to some extent. However, I do feel like judging one by how many pieces of jewelry are dangling off their ears is immoral. There will always be a hidden story behind each action. People are not as repulsive as their image(s) might suggest.

MONICA HAN

I absolutely love this girl. It really amazes me how we have been friends since literally preschool. The best thing about our relationship is that we don't have to talk to each other every single mother effing day of our lives to keep up: we just have a random sleepover one day and BAM we click. I could tell her anything at anytime of my life and for some weird reason she would understand everything and completely support me. It's abnormal. This kind of relationship is something I do not understand.

Society today forces us to communicate with each other every second of our lives. Humanity has grown to be completely dependent on other people: texting, Facebook, and altogether receiving attention. We have become so accustomed to talking to people that unconsciously the things that we say become fake. The reason why we have best friends - someone we can say anything to, someone we can hang out whenever, someone to reassure that we are not alone, is for the base of attention. Interestingly, it is the same reason why an insane number of people are addicted to Facebook. If this is the case, why aren't people "best friends" with everyone?

I believe the answer to this question is because people are temporary. Instead of being concerned about the actual person, we are concerned about moment of popularity and getting to know as many people as we can while it matters. This kind of fake, temporary relationship destroys me, which makes me treasure my friendship with Monica. We don't need to communicate every second to bond.